Couple whose son died in squalor have their case adjourned after mother collapses in dock

Police evidence photo of the house that the prosecution described as "covered in squalor".

Supplied: The Age

A Melbourne couple whose five-year-old child died in their squalid home have had their plea hearing delayed after the child's mother passed out in the dock.

The couple pleaded guilty to reckless conduct endangering their children and are awaiting sentencing by the Victorian County Court.

Extra security guards were called to the courtroom, after there was a heavy thump as she hit the floor before her husband called out for help.

Throughout the brief hearing the woman, aged in her 40s, sobbed loudly and hyperventilated in the dock.

The case has been stood down, after the woman was taken to hospital and a psychiatric report ordered.

When the judge queried if she may have deliberately taken anything to bring on her condition, her lawyer told the court her collapse was unusual.

The couple have a second young child and are unable to be identified.

Couple's son died in squalid house

The court heard the couple's son had cut his toe in the days before his death.

Prosecutors described the house where they lived as "covered in squalor" and said all the floors were covered with rubbish, including rotten food, open cat food tins and faeces.

They said the walls of the property were also "covered in filth".

But the court heard the couple was unable to be charged with the more serious charge of reckless conduct endangering life, because although their son had died, there was no evidence directly linking the cause of death to their actions.

The woman and her husband, also aged in his 40s, pleaded guilty to three offences, including two charges of recklessly engaging in conduct of failing to provide a safe domestic environment between 2010 and 2012, that placed each of their children in danger of serious injury.

They also pleaded guilty to one charge of failing to lodge a birth registration for their dead child.

The court heard the boy was born at home, in Melbourne's west.

"Obviously I'm guilty," the child's mother said when she was asked how she pleaded to that offence.

When her husband also pleaded guilty, she said, "but it wasn't your fault".

The woman told the court she was a "deadbeat" when asked of her occupation.